Another reason for stropping

[wickededge]

Today I was considering doing a video and pulled out a knife I hadn’t looked at in a while. It’s a Sebatier that I’d purchased and sharpened for my friend, Chef Rocky Durham, over a year ago.

I thought I might start with doing a little hanging hair test (HHT) but was surprised to see that the knife wouldn’t even shave my forearm hair. When I last checked it, after the original sharpening, it was easily passing the HHT, so it was odd that it now wouldn’t even shave. It turns out that oxidation had dulled the blade significantly. Oxide deposits had thickened the edge enough that it lost its keenness. I did a little bit of stropping with 1.0/0.5 micron diamond spray on cow leather strops. It quickly got back to shaving and when I moistened the 0.5 micron strop with rubbing alcohol and stropped again, it was able to pass the HHT pretty easily.

Here’s a quick little video of the HHT after stropping the knife: 

It’s worth noting that stropping is a very gentle process, especially when you drop the angle by a few degrees. The leather and micro-abrasives quickly clean of the oxide deposits and restore the apex to an appropriate thickness without taking metal or stressing the edge, assuming you’re using light strokes while stropping.

-Clay

[Geocyclist]

Interesting.  After you sharpened the knife a year ago what happened to it?  Did it sit in a drawer for a year or was it used any?  What type of steel is it?

[wickededge]

It’s Sabatier’s high carbon steel which has sat untouched for over a year in a little cardboard edge cover. It’s never cut a thing.

-Clay

[Author]

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